Old Dracula (1975). *
An American International release — in the worst sense of that infamous genre. This film, which stars David Niven as the vampire, is a prolonged practical joke at the audience's expense.
Dracula (1979). **
Directed by John Badham (Saturday Night Fever), this production attempts to be quite stylized and original. The script is based on a popular Broadway play of the same title, and Frank Langella re-created his stage role for the film. The film focuses on Dracula's seductive charms, and it features him as an archetypal Byronic lover. The premise is not so clever (or original) as the film-makers thought. The plot is predictably stereotyped.
Nosferatu (1979). **
The nature of this film is the natural result when a world-acclaimed artistic director sees fit to give his stamp of approval to a genre which has undergone pop culture trivializing. This is Werner Herzog's re-make (called homage by the director) of Murnaus classic. The film was, predictably, self-consciously "arty" and did not transcend the genre to any large degree whatsoever.
Love at First Bite (1980). **
Premise: Dracula is kicked out of his Transylvanian castle by local officials and comes to America, where he falls in love (with a beautiful woman) for the first time in his life. As a Dracula "spoof," it exhibits some degree of comic sophistication, thus rendering the film pleasantly innocuous.
